«Hver gang vi møtes»: “Like being invited to Skaugum!”

(Translator’s comment: Skaugum is the home of our crown-prince Haakon and his family)

(VG) Anneli Drecker (44) was very happy when TV2 finally called and asked if she wanted to be in “Hver gang vi møtes”.

CHEERED: Anneli Drecker was very satisfied when TV2 asked if she wanted to participate in their successful series.

– When they called me, it felt like being invited to Skaugum,- Drecker laughs. These days she is gathered together with six artist colleagues at Vestre Kjærnes farm in Våler, to record the third season of TV2’s big success, which will be aired just after New Year.The experienced artist was one of Norway’s biggest pop stars in the nineties. In recent years Drecker has been much less showy on the pop map – like several of the program’s participants both earlier and now.

– I haven’t been seen much in Norway,- Drecker admits, she has among other things worked as a theatre actor and toured around the world as singer for Røyksopp (Translator’s comment: Norwegian band) – It is difficult to say what impact “HGVM” will have on my career, as I have seen artists performing on TV with this and that without it doing anything for them. />Drecker admits that she was hoping for a long time to be in the program, something she also said last year when VG asked if she had been invited.

– My spontaneous answer then was honest: That I hadn’t got the question from TV2, but I wished that I would get it,- says Drecker – who participated in NRK’s “Stjernekamp” in 2012.

NEEDED AN UPLIFT: Øivind Elgenes is still marked by his band colleague's passing in April.

Øivind Elgenes on his part thinks that all Norwegian artists in recent years have a bigger need to be seen in media.

For himself he says that his own career got a blow when “Dance With A Stranger”’s bass player died in April. (Translator’s comment: DWAS is another Norwegian rock band…)
– Then our world was turned upside down. We still had around 15 – 20 gigs every year, he explains.

Alexander Rybak (27) describes the TV series as “very liberating”.

– I have never been so unafraid to talk directly “from my liver” as I am in this program,- he says.

– To which degree do you feel that your career needs “Hver gang vi møtes”?

– No matter if I answer one way or the other, it will be “cocky”, somehow … You can take the next question!

– Have you been asked to participate in this program before?

– Hmmm, no. Then I would have answered earlier, and then I would have said yes.

The last season of HGVM got a lot of attention for the strong rivers of tears that ran through the programs.

Simone Eriksrud (43) from D’Sound works a lot with Marion Ravn, who was among the most eager criers in last round. She thinks she can take over the baton in the new season.

– I am very easily moved! From me there will be a lot of glistening eyes. I just had to make a choice: If I should try to be cool, or if I should be myself, and I chose the latter. There is no point in doing this if you don’t do it for real,- she ascertains.

PROMISES TEARS: Simone Eriksrud will be there with glistening eyes in next year’s "Hver gang vi møtes".